Oshogatsu - Japanese New Year - is a big celebration in which friends and family get together to share wishes for a healthy and happy year and to participate in a variety of activities and celebrations. The New Year break starts from around December 30 to January 3.

Before the Oshogatsu game played, the participants enjoy the traditional Okinawan dance performance for celebrating the new year 2016.

JASGA organized a Community Service and Friends of Taniguchi Garden on February 20th for a workday in the Taniguchi Japanese Garden at Zilker Botanical Garden.

We need the community help to keep Austin's small Japanese garden clean and lively. Thank you so much for your participation! We had 32 volunteers including some children and 6 volunteers from Georgetown. Mr. IsamuTaniguchi, the garden creator might be so happy to see the clean garden.

The Japan-America Society of Greater Austin (JASGA) presented a jazz concert in Austin with three Japanese jazz players, alumnae of the Berklee College of Music, on 3-21-2016.

They are currently living in Tokyo, NY, and Austin. JASGA was delighted to host their concert of creative, organic, and relaxing jazz music.

TakanaMiyamoto (P), NorikoUeda (B), and Masumi Jones (Ds) formed a jazz piano trio called G.G. (Groovin' Girls) piano trio in Boston. After 15 years building their careers as musicians, the three members reunited at a studio in Tokyo in the summer of 2014. Their new album Ruby Road is a precious compilation; although each track has a theme, the recording focuses more on the trio's performance and sounds.

G.G. New Album 'Ruby Road' is available on iTunes Music Store & Apple Music USA / JAPAN.

JASGA invited two principal speakers from architecture and landscape engineering design firms to speak at the Zilker Botanical Garden Center Auditorium on Saturday, March 26, 2016.

Evan Taniguchi opened the talk about his grandfather, IsamuTaniguchi, who built the Taniguchi Japanese Garden.

KeijiAsakura talked about the Japanese garden and its relevance in our American culture in the past, present and future - how it had helped shaped our landscape and horticulture in the past, how the idea is informing and shaping our design of public spaces today, and how it may transform our relationship with nature into a more sustainable path.

After the presentations, Evan led the participants out to the Taniguchi Garden to enjoy the plum, peach and cherry blossoms and the other plants there. We had a good turnout with many Japanese garden supporters and Austin newcomers even though it was an Ester weekend.

Anyone traveling to Japan in the springtime is sure to experience one of the more exceptional natural events. Hanami, or flower viewing, is the annual Japanese custom, enjoying the blooming of cherry blossoms. There are many events around the one to two-week period where nature flourishes with color and fragrances.

The season is coming to an end in the southern, western and eastern Japan including Tokyo area. Meanwhile, the peak of the season is now in the southern and northern Tohoku Region.

Remember that cherry blossoms may only last two weeks but they always return to you!

The 114th Presentation of the MiyakoOdori in Kyoto throughout April

This Odori or dance is performed by the maiko and geiko of GionKobu. The first performance in 1872 was promoted as part of the Exhibition for the Promotion of Domestic Industry, as a measure to promote prosperity in Kyoto after the city's decline as a result of the capital having been moved to Tokyo in 1869. Infusion of new ideas into this annual event has made it very popular. It is now one of the main events in Kyoto.

The geiko and maiko of Gion perform annual public dances, as do those of all five geisha districts in Kyoto (Gion).The MiyakoOdori, literally Dances of the Old Capital or referred to as Cherry Blossom Dances, staged by the geisha of GionKōbu. The dances run from April 1 to 30 each year during the height of the cherry blossom season.

The Japan-America Grassroots Summit is an annual gathering of Japanese and American citizens, held alternately in Japan and the United States. Each year an average of 200 people travel across the Pacific to take part. The Summit aims to strengthen the peaceful relationship between the two countries by fostering friendships at the grassroots level.

The 2016 Japan-America Grassroots Summit will take place in Georgia from October 4 (Tue) to October 10 (Tue). Opening in and closing in Atlanta, the week-long Summit will span the scope of Southern hospitality as well as the region's cultural achievements. Residents of 15 greater Atlanta cities will open their homes and hearts to the Japanese visitors for a three-night local homestay program.

The registration for Summer 2016 Japanese language and Shodo classes will start in the mid of May. Please visit our home page (www.jasga.org) and calendar in the beg May. You will also receive a registration info via email. Please watch your email box!

GUEST ESSAY

Guest Essay

Comfortable Space in Japanese Calligraphy

(Shodo 書道 )

2016/4/10

Aya Koga

Certified Japanese Calligrapher

Instructor, JASGA Japanese Calligraphy Class

You may try to create your living room comfortably. Which furniture should I buy for a room? How should I choose color for a room? Time flies when you think about these things, right? This is enjoyable time, but at the same time it makes you exhausted. No doubt, it is difficult to create a comfortable room. I think that the world of Japanese Calligraphy (Shodo) is alike.

The thing which I pay attention the most when I create Calligraphy artworks is to create a comfortable and beautiful space in a paper. In other words, I always check my work whether it has a nice balance of color between black (ink) and white (color of paper). This process makes me both happy and struggle.

IYASHI - Comfort / comfortability / nurture

I believe most Japanese Calligraphers like this. To make sure of a fact, I talked my friend who has a higher skill of Japanese Calligraphy. As I expected, she told me, "My master of calligraphy always says how important to create a space of white. So, I have to care of it". We continued to discuss about how important and hard to making a nice space and we thought Japanese flower arrangement (The way of flower called Kado華道) might have same idea. After I hung up, I talked with other friend who is the master of Kado and she agreed with us.

My journey of creating an attractive space is definitely continuing. I believe a lot of experiences effect to my creation of Calligraphy work. Of course, living here in the U.S is big movement to create my work... Shining, big landscape, and so on.

Definitely people interested in Japanese culture hope to like Shodo, plus a person such as who is good at drawing and is studying design might be attracted to the world of Japanese Calligraphy. Our JASGAShodo class welcomes you any time!!

HANA (Cherry Blossoms) Lyrics /Poem

Stay active and see you at JASGA's upcoming program and events. We'd love to see all of you!